SYDNEY – It was a mistake so odd that even UFC president Dana White was left speechless. (Well, relatively.)

At the conclusion of this weekend’s UFC on FX 2 event in Sydney, Craig Waller, the executive director of the Combat Sports Authority of New South Wales, let White in on an important piece of information: He had miscalculated the scores of the flyweight-tournament bout between Demetrious Johnson (14-2-1 MMA, 2-1-1 UFC) and Ian McCall (11-2-1 MMA, 0-0-1 UFC).

While the two involved combatants dealt with obviously different emotions, White’s demeanor was clear as day. If you think he’s happy that maybe a little controversy will help sell a rematch, think again.

“There is nothing positive about that result,” White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I would rather have ended it tonight. We had two badass fights that everybody loved that would have led into the title fight. That would have been best-case scenario.”

UFC on FX 2 took place Saturday at Sydney’s Allphones Arena. With the time difference, the night’s main card aired live Friday night in the U.S. on FX.

Johnson and McCall fought through two closely contested opening rounds. In the third, “Uncle Creepy” took full control of the action and earned enough damage in the frame to score what some observers believe was a 10-8 round. Therein lay the problem.

When the scores were tallied, Johnson was declared the winner. In-cage announcer Bruce Buffer announced the result as a majority decision but proceeded to read split-decision results of 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28 in favor of Johnson. A disappointed McCall stormed out of the octagon, and Johnson accepted the win.

Unfortunately, there was a minor problem. Judge Sal D’Amato, who had given Johnson the opening two rounds with 10-9 marks, awarded McCall the third with a 10-8 score, which should have resulted in 28-28 total. With Anthony Dimitriou issuing a 29-29 score and Kon Papai awarding Johnson the fight 29-28, the fight should have been a majority draw, which under the special rules in place for the fight would have resulted in a fourth, sudden-victory round.

But when transferring the scores issued by the judges to the tabulating sheets, Waller accidentally recorded a 10-9 round in McCall’s favor on D’Amato’s card. That meant D’Amatos’ total was incorrectly announced as 29-28 for Johnson, giving “Mighty Mouse” a majority decision.

“It was a bit of an unfortunate situation,” Waller said. “I take full responsibility for what happened.”

“The fight should have been a majority draw. We should have gone to a fourth round. I sincerely apologize to both fighters, to Dana, and to every single fan of the UFC.”

Waller also made it very clear that while it was D’Amato’s scoring total that was miscalculated, it was he (as the official in charge of transferring and tabulating the totals) who made the mistake, not the judge.

“Sal wasn’t the one that made the error,” Waller said. “It was my error.”

White, who said he wasn’t told about the error until after the entire show was over, couldn’t believe the mistake.

“As soon as the show ended, they came over and told me,” White said. “After the card was done, they came up to me, and I said, ‘You’ve got to be [expletive] me. How is this possible?'”

The situation isn’t entirely unprecedented. White, himself, dealt with such a situation way back at 2003’s UFC 41 event, when Matt Serra was awarded a unanimous-decision win over Din Thomas – only for the result to be reversed after the fight when it was determined judge Doc Hamilton had transposed his scores in the final round.

“When the commission adds the totals wrong, I don’t know how you beat that one – other than if I would have had to go in and tell ‘Mighty Mouse’ that he lost,” White said. “That would have been worse. I’ve done that before.”

McCall, of course, was happy with the call. After all, he’ll now get a second shot at booking a future meeting against Joseph Benavidez with the UFC’s first-ever flyweight title on the line.

Johnson is a little more disappointed, but he’s hardly bitter. In fact, White said he was more than impressed with how “Mighty Mouse” handled the news.

“He couldn’t have been better,” White said. “He couldn’t have been classier – as classy as classy can be.”

Regardless of the emotions, Johnson and McCall did both receive their win bonuses in addition to the night’s “Fight of the Night” award, according to White. They’ll also get a rematch, which means another paycheck. But Benavidez will be forced to the sidelines following the majority-draw result while he waits for the rematch to unfold (and hopes the winner emerges uninjured).

But if you think he’s bitter, think again. Benavidez also flashed admirable class in dealing with the bizarre situation.

“My initial thought is I’m pretty excited to see that fight again,” Benavidez said. “It was awesome. When it ended, that’s what I felt. I was like, ‘That could be a draw. That could be a split. You just never know.’

“It was a great fight, and it’s awesome they get to do it again because I think it was a draw. I’m just excited to fight whoever comes out on top in that one because they will be the next best flyweight, and we’ll battle for the first-ever title.”

So maybe, in some odd way, the strange error could prove beneficial. After all, a little controversy never hurt anyone trying to sell a fight, and the division that didn’t exist before this week suddenly has a very compelling stroyline.

Except White’s not buying that idea.

“Imagine if they would have come out and said, ‘This is going to a fourth round,'” White said. “The crowd would have went crazy. People at home would have went crazy. It would have been an incredible atmosphere and an incredible moment.

“There’s nothing good about this, but what can you do? The commission owned up to it, apologized for it, and all we can do is move on.”

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